I have a friend who is moving and we are considering adopting her 2 year old airedale (male). I have raised two labs, one has passed away, and we are looking for another dog. I have a large fenced in yard, and my summers off (teacher) so he would have lots of outside time in the summer, and room to run when we are home in the winter months. We don't travel, the dogs (and cats) are usually not home alone for more than 6 hours at a time.

My questions are: what should I expect? What training difficulties will I face, and what should I look out for. He's going to be able to come and spend some weekends, and get to know us before we take him (if we decide to), and we won't integrate him until I'm done with school and home most days.

Will he have trouble with cats? We have three and he'd have to make adjustments for them.

I have read as much as I can about airedales, but I'd like to have someone tell me the "scoop" as an owner.